slippery slope

"They put aside all thought of obstacles and forgot that a precipice does not show itself to a man in a blind rush until it it's too late."
Frank Herbert

Ambition, motivation, and enthusiasm are all required to drive a new program, but beware the blind rush. Blinded because not enough stakeholders had a chance to contribute to the plan, or blinded by unbridled groupthink resulting from a cloister of too many like-minded people. Or blinded by the need to meet a deadline, ignorance, self-centeredness, or any of the usual flaws we assign to other people.

What are the differences between a precipice and a slope? The term precipice conjures up the image of a cliff, the unforgiving edge of an abyss...one step over the line and the plummet is immediate, there is no recourse or recovery. Whereas a slope is a gradual decline, seemingly offering the prospect of a slow change. The perception is that you may take the first step casually, without fear. But a slippery slope exposes the deception...because a slow step down is a still a descent.

The serious side of this scenario kicks in when the steps lead in an unethical direction. Unethical behavior does not have to be blatant at its inception, it may start with the simple use of half-truths or misrepresentations. A character in Dean Koontz's novel reflects on his misdeeds; "I don't know if this deception qualified as a half-step down a slippery slope. I had no sensation of sliding. But of course we never notice the descent until we are rocketing along at high velocity " (p. 106). By then it may be too late.

Unethical behavior leads to an irrevocable descent. The damage is done with the first half-step.

Sebring and Bryk's eight years of research on principal leadership finds that a leader needs to demonstrate integrity by articulating specific values and demonstrating them in his or her daily behavior. Leadership is elevated to a moral act in James Magregor Burns' book, Leadership; "The result of transforming leadership is a relationship of mutual stimulation and elevation that converts followers into leaders and leaders into moral agents" (p. 4). Kotter and Cohen's book chronicling how leaders have changed their organizations states that to deliver large scale change you must be "credible in a very gut-level sense, and that evokes faith in the vision" (p. 84). Credibility at the gut-level sense. You cannot fake ethical behavior, people's gut-level sense will scope it out. The upside is that acting with integrity elevates the entire organization.

There is a reason why acting with integrity is referred too as taking the high road.

Make a good day,
Tod

PS: Herbert, F. (1965). Dune. New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation.

PSS. Koontz, D. (2006). Brother Odd. New York: Bantam Books.

PSSS. Sebring, P. B. & Bryk, A. S. (2000, Feb). School Leadership and the Bottom Line in Chicago. Phi Delta Kappan, 440-443.

PSSSS. Kotter, J. P. & Cohen, D. S (2002). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.